Since I don't have time to write my own post today, I thought I'd embed this 4-minute video of Rep. Gwen Moore (my rep, I'm proud to say) explaining Gov Walker's budget proposal to Gov. Walker:
Showing posts with label scott walker budget proposal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scott walker budget proposal. Show all posts
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Income disparity growing - what you need to know in a glance
Here is a graph you might just want to sit with, ponder, let this reality sink in:
This is all you need to know about what has been going on in US politics over the past 30 years. The question it begs could not be more profound - what kind of world do we want to live in, to pass on to the next generation?
This didn't happen because the top 1% of the population worked harder or were so particularly bright, clever, ingenious. It happened by design, it happened at the table of institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, hedge funds board rooms, among billionaire investors with resources that outmatch the GDPs of entire nations. With their fortunes, they could buy up media (with cable news channels being particularly egregious examples), political campaigns, and politicians themselves. They could indeed make their claim at being 'Masters of the Universe.' The rest of us? Just not their problem or their concern.
The health of the planet? Not if there is profit to be made by exploiting it.
I will tell you this - any politicians, any judge, any official that gets lots of support from that top 1%, or has worked for them (unless sincerely repentant of this past), or intends to work for them in the future, does not have in mind the best interests of the majority of people in the state or anywhere else in the world. We need to know this. We need to understand why the organized voices of workers, teachers, families, the 'folks,' is so vital to our well-being. An organized voice with millions of people behind it is one of the few instruments we have to push back against the stealing of our state's and our nation's wealth by this top 1%.
And that voice must resist efforts to divide it, or sow resentment within it. It must overcome racism. It must embrace the diversity of the populations it ought to include wholeheartedly - because we are all in this together. It must resist acting out of the rage and fear so many of us feel today because what is being proposed, and is likely to pass, by this governor and his colleagues in state government is going to be disastrous for the people of Wisconsin, for our precious environment, for the efforts of so many good people and social organizations that have been trying to address the injustices, suffering, and needs of our most vulnerable populations.
Stephen Colbert did a great satire on this on his show last night. He's always a bit on the rude/crude edge, so fair warning. On the other hand, with humor and satire, he absolutely nails it. So maybe we can laugh a bit as we weep. And maybe we can think about how we pull ourselves and our communities together to put forward a different vision of our future than the one outlined in the governor's budget address the other day.
This is all you need to know about what has been going on in US politics over the past 30 years. The question it begs could not be more profound - what kind of world do we want to live in, to pass on to the next generation?
This didn't happen because the top 1% of the population worked harder or were so particularly bright, clever, ingenious. It happened by design, it happened at the table of institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, hedge funds board rooms, among billionaire investors with resources that outmatch the GDPs of entire nations. With their fortunes, they could buy up media (with cable news channels being particularly egregious examples), political campaigns, and politicians themselves. They could indeed make their claim at being 'Masters of the Universe.' The rest of us? Just not their problem or their concern.
The health of the planet? Not if there is profit to be made by exploiting it.
I will tell you this - any politicians, any judge, any official that gets lots of support from that top 1%, or has worked for them (unless sincerely repentant of this past), or intends to work for them in the future, does not have in mind the best interests of the majority of people in the state or anywhere else in the world. We need to know this. We need to understand why the organized voices of workers, teachers, families, the 'folks,' is so vital to our well-being. An organized voice with millions of people behind it is one of the few instruments we have to push back against the stealing of our state's and our nation's wealth by this top 1%.
And that voice must resist efforts to divide it, or sow resentment within it. It must overcome racism. It must embrace the diversity of the populations it ought to include wholeheartedly - because we are all in this together. It must resist acting out of the rage and fear so many of us feel today because what is being proposed, and is likely to pass, by this governor and his colleagues in state government is going to be disastrous for the people of Wisconsin, for our precious environment, for the efforts of so many good people and social organizations that have been trying to address the injustices, suffering, and needs of our most vulnerable populations.
Stephen Colbert did a great satire on this on his show last night. He's always a bit on the rude/crude edge, so fair warning. On the other hand, with humor and satire, he absolutely nails it. So maybe we can laugh a bit as we weep. And maybe we can think about how we pull ourselves and our communities together to put forward a different vision of our future than the one outlined in the governor's budget address the other day.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Government by cruelty
"It is a hostile corporate takeover of the state of Wisconsin." Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton)
I try to use reasonable language, right? not to use extremes or hyperbole, even when emotions run high. But I stand by my headline. If Gov Scott Walker's budget became real in my dear state of Wisconsin, it would amount to government by cruelty - cruelty towards the most vulnerable of our populations, a taking of money from the poor and struggling and using it to subsidize the affluent and the millionaire and billionaire business people so favored by this poor example of a 'governor,' as in, one who governs for the welfare, rights, and interests of all.
My dear Wisconsin voters, what have we done? So many of us, fueled by anger and resentment by our deteriorating quality of life, took out our frustrations in the polling booth not knowing what was really being prepared for this state. So many who have seen wages fall, home values plummet, jobs and benefits lost, who are falling between the widening cracks of a dysfunctional economy more and more at the service of the richest 1% of the population, who are angry and resentful, voted for this guy because they thought he cared about them.
He has just handed back to you a disastrous budget that will gut the quality of life in this state and do exactly what Sen. Erpenbach said yesterday - hand over the state to the Koch brothers and Heritage Foundation folks who helped write this budget (trust me, Walker was not capable of that) in a hostile bid to put this state into the hands of polluters, of people who want to increase their profits by vastly reducing their production costs - like labor and environmental costs. They want your labor and our forests, waterways, air and other resources for free - or as close to free as they can get.
Here's a budget that would help them do that - if it passes.
For example, capital gains taxes will be cut or eliminated for the Koch brothers whose personal fortune approaches $100 billion. Meanwhile, this proposal would eliminate caps on the school voucher program, meaning that people who can afford to pay tuition for private schools could use them - meaning our tax dollars would subsidize the affluent to send their kids to private schools - another transfer of funds from the poor to the wealthy.
Another example: the elimination of recycling requirements all across the state. Oh, you can just see how folks like the Koch brothers and our new Senator, plastics manufacturer Ron Johnson, wanted that provision thrown in!! If you contribute to Walker's campaign, amazingly, tax breaks and lax regulations for your businesses do seem to follow. Public workers, inner city families with kids in public schools, poor folks in the BadgerCare system? Not so much.
What in the world is going on here? This is NOT about balancing budgets because there are other ways to do this - to balance a budget and keep vital services - for one thing, by increasing revenue from those who can well afford it.
But I can tell you what this budget proposal will do - it will divide this state further, it will throw fuel onto the seething fires of our growing resentments as more and more people suffer the effects of this most dangerous state and nationwide trend - the concentration of wealth in the top 1% of our population, the old champagne glass model of the economy where wealth bubbles up from below to the top, stealing from people's labor, our resources, our schools, our quality of life all the way up.
Friends, sadly, this budget was more than a shout-out from the extreme right; it is, indeed, a bold attempt at a hostile corporate takeover of our state. And it must be stopped.
What are the possibilities that all that good will and energy that has occupied and surrounded our state capitol for the past 2 1/2 weeks can become a broad movement to reclaim our progressive values in this state? Because the answer to that question will decide whether this cruel budget, god forbid, ever becomes the program of our state government.
--------------
To learn more about what is in Walker's budget proposal:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117212348.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117192683.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117193763.html
http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/search_news.php?keys={mad}
I try to use reasonable language, right? not to use extremes or hyperbole, even when emotions run high. But I stand by my headline. If Gov Scott Walker's budget became real in my dear state of Wisconsin, it would amount to government by cruelty - cruelty towards the most vulnerable of our populations, a taking of money from the poor and struggling and using it to subsidize the affluent and the millionaire and billionaire business people so favored by this poor example of a 'governor,' as in, one who governs for the welfare, rights, and interests of all.
 |
| Photo: Margaret Swedish |
He has just handed back to you a disastrous budget that will gut the quality of life in this state and do exactly what Sen. Erpenbach said yesterday - hand over the state to the Koch brothers and Heritage Foundation folks who helped write this budget (trust me, Walker was not capable of that) in a hostile bid to put this state into the hands of polluters, of people who want to increase their profits by vastly reducing their production costs - like labor and environmental costs. They want your labor and our forests, waterways, air and other resources for free - or as close to free as they can get.
Here's a budget that would help them do that - if it passes.
For example, capital gains taxes will be cut or eliminated for the Koch brothers whose personal fortune approaches $100 billion. Meanwhile, this proposal would eliminate caps on the school voucher program, meaning that people who can afford to pay tuition for private schools could use them - meaning our tax dollars would subsidize the affluent to send their kids to private schools - another transfer of funds from the poor to the wealthy.
Another example: the elimination of recycling requirements all across the state. Oh, you can just see how folks like the Koch brothers and our new Senator, plastics manufacturer Ron Johnson, wanted that provision thrown in!! If you contribute to Walker's campaign, amazingly, tax breaks and lax regulations for your businesses do seem to follow. Public workers, inner city families with kids in public schools, poor folks in the BadgerCare system? Not so much.
What in the world is going on here? This is NOT about balancing budgets because there are other ways to do this - to balance a budget and keep vital services - for one thing, by increasing revenue from those who can well afford it.
But I can tell you what this budget proposal will do - it will divide this state further, it will throw fuel onto the seething fires of our growing resentments as more and more people suffer the effects of this most dangerous state and nationwide trend - the concentration of wealth in the top 1% of our population, the old champagne glass model of the economy where wealth bubbles up from below to the top, stealing from people's labor, our resources, our schools, our quality of life all the way up.
Friends, sadly, this budget was more than a shout-out from the extreme right; it is, indeed, a bold attempt at a hostile corporate takeover of our state. And it must be stopped.
What are the possibilities that all that good will and energy that has occupied and surrounded our state capitol for the past 2 1/2 weeks can become a broad movement to reclaim our progressive values in this state? Because the answer to that question will decide whether this cruel budget, god forbid, ever becomes the program of our state government.
--------------
To learn more about what is in Walker's budget proposal:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117212348.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117192683.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117193763.html
http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/search_news.php?keys={mad}
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